Maddy Barone Send Message

To celebrate shoveling the car free of the enormous drifts left by the latest blizzard, I brewed a pot of this tea this afternoon. This is a favorite tea, and it was nice and smooth going down. So warming and comforting on a cold, cold day. I don’t think we got above zero today and there was enough of a breeze that the wind chill was -25. You can imagine I was glad to come in from that and sit down with a warm cup of tea. I suppose at that point almost any hot beverage would have been welcome, but Golden Orchid is one of my faves.

I had this sample before bed last night. It was good. I didn’t even taste the hibiscus. Mostly it was a warm, lightly spiced, lightly sweet cup. Very enjoyable, but I won’t run and buy 50 grams of it. I have GOT to stop buying tea and drink what I have!

I haven’t had this one for a while. I’ve been mostly drinking tea in the late afternoon and evening lately, which means I usually go for a dessert-y or non caffeine teas. But today is pretty cold so I decided to brew a pot of this.

I’d forgotten how GOOD this tea is. So smooth. No bitterness or astringency, just rich, well balanced black tea. Days like this make me wonder why I always start my day with coffee. A good tea like this will wake me up and make me happy to be up. Or at least, happy to be drinking this tea :)

I drank the last cup. My tea bags are gone sob I really enjoy this tea on chilly winter evenings when I don’t want caffeine. I really think this is one of the very best bagged herbal teas you can find in a supermarket. I might have to pick some more up.

made another pot of this tonight. Enjoyed it quite a bit. Tine to watch another episode of The Witcher while I knit. It’s a good day when you can sip tea, watch an interesting TV program and knit.

An old favorite. I had this one last night. This tea is never off. It always gives me a glow of warm delight to see the tiny candy canes and taste the always smooth, mildly creamy and sweet tea.

It’s not very cold today. In fact we had RAIN today. Good grief, that is pretty unheard of for North Dakota in winter. So now it is colder and everything has frozen to an ice skating rink. And more snow expected on Friday. Oy! I just unearthed my car.

But I will continue to enjoy this tasty blend from David’s TEa.

14 inches of snow and no garage make Maddy crabby. I spend about 25 minutes trying to dig the car out. I got it half excavated. I don’t have to go anywhere until Friday so I (wheezing and and cursing) decided to do a little more tomorrow and then a little more Wednesday. The whole parking lot is a mess. The wind is still blowing so although it isn’t all that cold, it felt like it with the wind.

I came in and brewed this sachet for the advent calendar. I am not sure what I thought of it. It appears to be well liked but it just wasn’t that good for me. Nothing wrong with it. It wasn’t bitter or astringent or sour. And it was nice and warm when I was cold and crabby. Maybe I just was in the mood for something familiar and beloved and didn’t get the same kind of comfort from an old favorite. Oh well. Tomorrow I will drink something from the stash that I know I love.

I over ate yesterday. I tend to do that, especially around the holidays, so I picked up a box of this on Thursday. I had first put the 3 gingers in my cart, but decided on this one instead. Too bad I didn’t check the tea notes first. The 3 ginger one has better ratings. However, I didn’t hate this one. It won’t be one I reach for just for the pleasure of its taste, but it’s drinkable. I kinda got the sweet burn of the ginger, and at the end of the sip was a sour note from (I presume) the lemon. The Pukka teas were almost twice the price of the Bigelow teas, but it did seem to help my tummy, so it was worth it.

Day 1 of the 3 day winter storm is over. I think we have about 5 inches so far. The wind is supposed to pick up tonight and then we’ll get two more days of snow. Church is already cancelled for tomorrow, which is good, because there is no way I could get out of my parking lot. Maybe 16 inches of snow in total for this storm by 3pm Monday. Welcome to North Dakota.

It was really pretty earlier. The snow was big fat flakes falling straight down. Snow falling vertically is pretty rare up here. Most often it comes down at a slant, or even purely horizontally. I sat in my chair with my knitting and tea this afternoon and watched it. It was very relaxing. As long as I didn’t think about having to unbury the car, it was relaxing. I don’t drink, really, so this tea (Mistletoe and WINE) is as close as I get.

The tea is a pretty, wine color from the hibiscus. The last cup I had the hibby wasn’t as prominent. This cup was quite a bit more sour. So sour I didn’t finish it. I shall try another of my B & B subscription teas tomorrow afternoon, when I will watch the snow driven along by the wind and listen to it howl. Fun times.

Bird & Blend Tea Advent Calendar Day 22:

I liked this one. I cannot say whether is smelled or tasted of banana. The old sniffer is dead and gone. But this one was smooth and mellow and a bit sweet. After a coiuple of misses, I was glad to enjoy the whole cup and even re steep. The second cup was as good as the first.